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Winners of the 2003 Nature Photo Contest

Best in show - Five Decomposers. Photo by Don Beauprie.

It is hard to believe that the nature photo contest has been going strong for 38 years. And every year we receive more entries (a whopping 535 this time) than the year before, making the job of the judges – Robert McCaw, Ron Erwin and Scott Fairbairn – ever more difficult. Perhaps it is a testament to the beauty and novelty of the natural world that we never tire of trying to capture it with our cameras. Congratulations to all the participants for taking us somewhere unexpected with their images.

Many thanks go to the companies that donated prizes: Bruce County Tourism, Pentax Canada, Efston Science, Mountain Equipment Co-op, Bushnell Sports Optics Worldwide, Mill Creek Seed Co. and Natural Heritage Books. Great thanks are also extended to Nancy Reid who has organized the contest for the past three years, keeping track of hundreds of images, arranging the judging and reassuring the many participants, all the while maintaining the calm eye at the centre of the storm.

Best in show

Five Decomposers
By Don Beauprie

Beauprie spotted these five mushrooms by Cache Lake in Algonquin Park last summer. Says Beauprie, “I noticed the mushrooms in a crack in a large maple stump halfway between the cottage and the privy.” Beauprie spent the next two hours photographing the fungi and captured this winner.

Equipment used: Nikon FM3A with a 200 millimetre micro lens, Kodak Elite Chrome 100 film.

One With Water. Photo by Patty Webber.

Best newcomer

One With Water
By Patty Webber

From the dock jutting out from their property in Georgian Bay to the surface of the water is an eight-to 12-foot drop – and the water is not warm. But Webber’s daughter, the girl in the photo, is “a water baby. She’s the first one in. It’s her element.” The water was unusually calm the day Webber took this picture; hence the lake’s remarkable clarity.

Equipment used: Nikon F 65, Black’s ISO 100 film.

Viper's Bugloss. Photo by Stuart McPherson. Flora Viper’s Bugloss By Stuart McPherson McPherson photographed this pretty plant minutes before the sun went down. A photographer with some 50 years’ experience, McPherson was in his car when he noticed the back-lit flowers along the side of the road outside Dundas. “Viper’s bugloss is four feet tall,” says McPherson. “I used a tripod and a silver foil reflector.” Equipment used: 9000 Minolta with a 100-F28 Macro lens, Fuji ISO 50 film.

Sunset at the Point. Photo by James Wilkes.

Ontario wilderness

Sunset at the Point
By James Wilkes

A nature photographer for the past ten years, Wilkes snapped this shot by one of the lakes in Camden East. He took the photo at dusk at the tail end of a thunderstorm. “I had been taking pictures of frogs by the shoreline,” says Wilkes, when I saw the sun peeking out and quickly changed lenses. It was a window of opportunity.”

Equipment used: Canon T 90 with a 20 millimetre lens, Fuji 400 film.

12 Spot Dragonfly. Photo by Thelma Beaubien.

Fauna

12 Spot Dragonfly
By Thelma Beaubien

A relative newcomer to nature photography, Beaubien prefers to take pictures at daybreak. Using a tripod, she sapped this shot in a conservation area outside Stratford last summer. “I like the element of surprise,” says Beaubien. “Whatever sparks me at that moment I take a picture of.”

Equipment used: Minolta maxxum 7 with a 90 millimetre macro lens, Fuji Velvia ISO 50 film.

Window Frost. Photo by Susan Dykstra.

Shapes and colours

Window Frost
By Susan Dykstra

Dykstra had been looking at the frosted window at her workplace in Thunder Bay for weeks before she decided she had to photograph it. “Every night the windows would frost up and stay like that during the day,” says Dykstra. “Finally I stayed after everyone else had left and photographed to my heart’s content. The patterns were so interesting.”

Equipment used: Canon Elan 7E with a 70-200 millimetre lens, Fuji Velvia ISO 50 film.

Kestrel at Nesting Box. Photo by Stuart McPherson. In accord with nature Kestrel at Nesting Box By Stuart McPherson McPherson spent five days in Waterdown, just outside Hamilton, photographing kestrels as the birds flew in and out of nesting box a farmer had built. Says McPherson, “I built a blind 20 feet high and took photographs for two or three hours each day.” His patience paid off with this bang-on shot. Equipment used: 9000 Minolta with a 300 millimetre lens, Fuji 100 film.